


Peeta's Hijacked Memories

by HoneybadgerGotzNoChill



Category: The Hunger Games
Genre: Gen, Hijacked Peeta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 12:16:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7221997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoneybadgerGotzNoChill/pseuds/HoneybadgerGotzNoChill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Mockingjay, we knew well what went on for Katniss Everdeen, but we never quite got the full story for our dear baker Peeta Mellark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The moment I heard the explosion, I had the dreaded feeling in my gut and knew I was not going to get to see her again. "Katniss!" I screamed again, running still toward the last place I had heard her voice calling my name. The explosion spreads, and I have to take a knee to keep from being forced backward. I shield my head with my arm as the force field is blown up around me, and debris shower me. My one thought is to get to Katniss, make sure she is alright. When the explosion has passed I stand and run again in the same direction. The locket, still hanging from my neck, beats against my chest as I run. I hear the familiar sound of a hovercraft and as I glance upward, see it just over the spot where I was headed. A claw descends and grabs a body, retracts and comes down for another. I almost freeze in my footsteps as the body is lifted, a limp arm holds a bow, but it drops midway through the air. Sweat drips from my hair into my eyes, stinging them. My tribute suit is stuck to my body and I have the fear I am not going to make it, not with my fake leg holding me back. The bow hits the ground, hear the loud crack, and hear the sound of a hovercraft growing fainter. I look up to realize the hovercraft is leaving. "No! Wait, I'm here! I'm here!" I break into the little clearing I had left Betee in. He is not there, and the bow I know was Katniss lays on the ground, string snapped, by the tree. I gradually stop running, knowing I wasn't going to make it anyways, slowly coming to the terms of my fate. I breathe heavily as I walk to the bow and kneel in front of it. At least Katniss had made it out. That's all I had wanted. I pick up the bow and run my hand along its sleek grip. She can go home now, see Prim and her mother, live happily with Gale. I grip the bow tightly. He'll take good care of her and give her all she deserves. I feel a sharp pain in the side of my neck, something long piercing into it. A prickling, burning sensation begins to spread from my neck to my body and my grip on the bow loosens as I fall toward the earth, the edges of my vision going black. A faint sound of ringing in my ears and my eyes close, the viscous black overtaking me.


	2. Chapter 2

As I resurface from the blackness, my head feels disconnected from the rest of my body, heavy and full of liquid. As I lift it, I find its still connected, to a very sore neck and the liquid brings sharp pains as it drains away. My head finds something hard that stops it from going farther back. I should open my eyes, get a sense of where I am, but as my senses start to return to me, I feel as though I would be better off not knowing. The pungent odor suggests some type of waste surrounds us, a constant hum throws me off completely. The sound of a piercing, strangled scream echoes around me, and my eyes snap open. I look to my right, my neck won’t allow me to move it the other way, and I see a line of three other chairs filled with the unconscious, bound hand and foot. I look down at myself and find I’m in the same situation. The metal chairs coldness that I sit in has long seeped through my tribute uniform to my skin. Portia had been right, the thin, skin tight material was not made for the cold. I grit my teeth as a cold shiver runs through my body and keep myself from shaking. The girl nearest me lifts her head sluggishly and blinks her eyes and peers around the room. Her eyes suddenly widen and she cries out, beginning to struggle against her restraints. She is small, brown haired and her sea colored eyes mark her as one from District Four. I recognize her after a moment, from many hours of pouring over old Hunger Games, she was one of the victors, the poor mad girl. 

I speak softly to her, “Annie, stop, you’ll hurt yourself.” Her head turns to me and her eyes focus in, studying me carefully.

“Where are we?” Her voice matches her frail frame, filled with fear. 

I begin to speak, but a harsh voice cuts me off, “Isn’t it obvious? We’re prisoners, of the Capitol.” I look down the line, at the one who had spoken and furrow my brow.

“Johanna.” I hiss, because I could see the fear grow in Annie. 

“What?” she snaps back. “It’s the truth.” I open my mouth to speak, but what exactly would I say? She’s obviously had time to assess and accept our situation.

“Who is that beside you?” I ask instead. I could just make the outline of another person past Johanna.

“Enobaria,” she says uninterested. 

I lean back in the seat and look around our room to try and get a clue of where we were, Capitol for sure, but where? The dark that devoured every corner of the room but our four chairs, felt like a pressing force. The air certainly was thick. 

“I wanna go home,” Annie whimpers. 

I look over to her as a door in front of us flies open, filling the room with a new light. Peacekeepers flood into the room, coming to a solid line in front of us. Eight, I count. Tension fills the room, broken only when a sole pair of footsteps is heard, the owner never coming into view. 

“Unshackle them and take them to the cells. Bring the District Seven tribute to me.” 

No sooner had the gruff voice finished speaking than the Peacekeepers descended upon us, roughly unbinding us. They had to slap Enobaria awake which did not go over well. She snapped at the Peacekeepers hand, her sharp teeth biting off a part of his gloved hand. He yelled and a bigger Peacekeeper took his place, grabbing hold of Enobaria as the man tried to stop the bleeding. The uninjured Peacekeeper takes the place of the bigger and soon we are being marched down a series of hallways to a pair of steel double doors, a Peacekeeper having a hold of each arm. We stand before the doors only a moment before they’re opening up to reveal a long hallway, doors on one side, open steel barred cells on the other with one occupied at the moment by a red haired man. One glance. A double, and I recognize him under the dirt, dried blood and bruises. It was the Avox from our district, the Peacekeeper, Darius. I hadn’t realized I’d slowed in my walking, but the Peacekeepers had and roughly jerk me forward to a cell near the middle. They open the door and throw me in, ripping my uniform when it catches on part of the lock, scratching my arm. They handle us all this way. The only one not thrown in is Johanna. They continue marching her to the end of the long hall, but stop before the other double doors and turn into one of the rooms that they disappear inside. Annie has curled up against the bars with her knees to her chest and begun crying, Enobaria consistently throws herself at the bars, screaming profanities as the Peacekeepers walk off laughing. The sting on my arm from the scratch has dulled. Annie is in the cell next to mine, the other side of mine is empty I’m guessing for Johanna. I go to the bars separating Annie and me and kneel in front of them. 

“Annie?” I say softly. Her crying doesn’t stop and she doesn’t even acknowledge she heard me. “Annie, I’m Peeta. I’m a friend of Finnick’s.” Her head lifts just enough for her eyes to peek over her knees at me, tears still falling from them. I smile warmly. “Finnick has given me a special request and I would like to make good on my promise I gave him. I told him, I’d look after you until he could get back to you.” Her eyes seem to have transfixed on me, her tears have stopped and I attempt offering my hand out to her. She shies away from it, and I start to take it back, but she grabs it rather quickly holding tightly. For someone so small, I didn’t expect such a grip. She looks at me with gleaming eyes, a look of worry on her features. 

“Is Finnick okay?” 

“Yes, Annie, he’s fine. He’s safe.” A small smile tugs at the corner of her lips. The Peacekeepers who’d taken Johanna in the room come out and stand guarding her door.  
“Who’s next you think?” I hear one of them ask. 

“Pretty boy over there’s out of the question. It’s between the biter and Avox.”

“What about the one by the boy?”

“Her? You idiot, that’s the mad girl Annie Cresta, she doesn’t know anything.” And the conversation ends there. I look to Annie and see her staring down.

“I’m not entirely crazy…” She mutters and it was then I understood a little of what Finnick knows about her. Annie was not entirely crazy. She knew she had moments where her actions or thoughts were that of the little girl from the arena, but she had moments when she was more than sane. Annie was just another victor. 

Episodes, that’s what Finnick and Annie called them. Finnick’s time in District Four was always spent with Annie, whatever Annie wanted to do no matter when she tried to get Finnick to do something he wanted, so she would have to trick him into it anyways. There’s a lot you can learn about someone in an hour, that’s how long it took for Johanna to reappear looking like a drowned beaten rat, madder than a wet hen and for them to bring in the Avox girl who had served us.

Annie and mines focus goes to her, shocked. “Johanna, what happened to you?” I ask and recieve a look that if they could, would’ve killed me. 

She stares at me like this for a good few seconds before sharply looking at Peacekeepers passing by, turning her lethal look on them, “You damn Capitol pigs can burn in hell!”

They stop and unlock her cell, moving inside quickly. One grabs hold of her while the other hits her. She looks up at him and spits in his face, receiving another hit.

“Johanna!” I yell. She stares at the Peacekeeper, her jaw tightened as she holds back what she was wanting to do. The grinning Peacekeepers leave laughing, passing by my cell, looking in. I glare down at the ground.

“Better get your beauty sleep, you’ve got an interview coming up soon.” Then they go. Soon as the doors close behind them everything goes black. 

Annie’s hand clamps onto mine and with my other I pat hers gently. “It’s alright Annie, I’m here.”

“I don’t like the dark, Peeta.” she replies.

“Just sleep.” Johanna’s voice says with an annoyed sigh. 

I ignore her, “I’ll stay right here with you, promise.” Her hand relaxes just a hair underneath mine and I turn my hand over to hold hers, reassure her I wasn’t going anywhere. I rest my head against the bars, and whether Annie was asleep or not, I soon was.


	3. Chapter 3

When I come back to consciousness I don't open my eyes, I don't move, but I feel myself rocking. My brow furrows and on the next breath I open my eyes, smelling instead of the foul air I had gone to sleep in, the ocean. I gasp and almost fall off I to the water. I look beneath me and see the metal plate the tributes had risen from then look out across the water to see the Cornucopia. At the Cornucopia a fight was underway. It seemed like all the tributes were already there. In the center, if I squinted, I could see a girl with a bow and a guy with a trident. I instantly knew it was Katniss and Finnick. I get into a kneeling position for more stability and start screaming their names. I couldn't get to them, I couldn't swim, I'd drown faster than I could be reached. No matter how much I yelled or waved my arms, I knew they weren't coming. I look at the water and put my legs over the side of the platform and slip into it. I grab the platform immediately taking a breath before letting go, bracing myself to sink like a rock, but instead I keep above the water. Not thinking more about it, I kick my feet out and move my hands in front of me quickly as I'd seen people to in Games past, moving in the direction of the Cornucopia, of Katniss. 

The creaking of the a cell door breaks into my dream, waking me. My eyes snap open at the door's slamming. Peacekeepers are taking Johanna back to the room she was in last night. I look to my right and see Annie still sleeping.

"Bring it in." I hear from the doorway. A delayed moment later, the door at the end of the hall opens. A large tub is rolled in and water sloshes over the side. An empty tub I assume is brought out of the room to make way for the new. Seconds later, a bitter taste rises in my mouth, as the aged president glides into the hallway. Bags have begun to form under his eyes since last I saw of him at the opening ceremony, and there is no sign he's made an attempt to cover it up. He walks, upright and graciously after the tub, careful to avoid the spills, following it into the room with Johanna.

"Sweet Johanna, you are still looking well." The president must also have gone blind.

"I wish I could say the same for you." She retorts, despite her knowledge she knows she doesn't look well at all.

There is a brief silence and then the president's chuckle, "I am afraid it is true. I have not been sleeping well since learning of the rebellion, and all these uprisings that are trying to ruin out great nation, can take a roll on one such as myself." 

"I bet you're just dying of heartache." 

"Yes, well you and I both know you are not here by coincidence. We know you have information on these rebels, so please, be a dear and tell us. I promise if you do, you can all go."

"Your promises are as about as good as a pile of-" she's cut off by a sound of splashing then there's gasps from the room.

"Make this easy on everyone my dear, and just tell us where they are." Snow's voice was light, smooth with a non existent kindness.

"Go to-" More splashing, this time though instead of gasps a series of obscenities flow from the room, then a loud smack as gurgled words that become muffled as the door is shut. 

Annie awakes with a cry for Finnick and it takes her a moment to realize where she is. 

Peacekeepers come in and get Darius, taking him off to one of the rooms. Another Peacekeeper comes in and gets the girl Avox, taking her into the room in front of me. It isn't long before I can hear their strangled screams through the doors and Annie presses her hands to her ears to try and block them out. I try to, with thoughts of Katniss. Where was she? Is she really safe? Really okay? I squeeze my eyes shut trying harder to block out the screaming. Was that a hovercraft from the rebels that got her, or has Snow gotten her here somewhere locked up? Is she... I don't finish the thought, not wanting to. 

When the door to Johanna's room opens, Snow is the one to appear out of it. He began to walk to the halls exit looking disheveled, wet and not at all happy. I stand up and go to the cage door as the Peacekeepers have to drag Johanna back to a cell, this time to the one the Avox girl had been in. Johanna again is soaked, this time unconscious, bloody and I can see more bruised appearing. Minutes later the unconscious Avox girl is thrown into the cell beside me and Darius barely hanging on back into his cell. 

The Peacekeepers stop in front of my cell, "Can't wait to get to deal with you." One says sneering, then they leave laughing. 

I walk to the back of the cell and sit against the wall, just staring at the bars. 

I sit like this for a while, an hour maybe, during which Johanna begins to come into consciousness and moaning seems like the only thing she can do. I don't look when the door at the end of the hallway opens, only when the Peacekeepers open my cell and come in to drag me out. I expected to go to the room Johanna was in or maybe the Avox girl or Darius, but instead they lead me out the double doors. 

I don't know how many hallways we go down, but we end up on an elevator. The elevator takes us up, opening up to the District Twelve tribute's floor. So we were in the training center... Appearing after a Peacekeeper yells is Portia and my prep team. They shove me toward her and stand guard at the door. Portia looks at me with a sad smile. 

"How's my victor doing?" 

"Do they have Katniss? Is she safe?" I blurt out. 

Portia just looks at me and touches my cheek, "You're going to need a lot of work." she says then leads me to a chair making me sit. She motions over the prep team to begin working on me. 

I frown the whole time I'm being prepped. I understood why Portia wouldn't answer. It was cause she either didn't know or knew something and couldn't tell me, not there. I still wish she would've tried though because I could care less about how the Capitol people are being affected right now. 

The Peacekeepers are easier with me because of Portia almost throwing a fit that they'd mess up her hard work, though they weren't by much, as they take me to outside the training center for an interview with Caesar. When I reached the stage, standing off in the wing waiting to go out, I'm visited by Snow.

"Hello Peeta. That was a spectacular performance in the arena." I say nothing and keep staring at Caesar as he warms up the crowd. "This is a big interview Peeta, we think it is going to reach your beloved Katniss." I turn to face him. He'd just confirmed Katniss was not in his clutches but somewhere safer, and I would keep it that way however possible. A visit from the president was never for social reasons, and by his tone I could tell he was leading up to something. 

"What is it you want me to do sir?" 

"The nation loves you, and anyone with half a brain can see you have powerful words that move people. Ask the people for a cease fire. Do this and you are guaranteed that no harm comes to Miss Everdeen." Katniss was safer than here, but still not off Snow's radar.

"I'll do it." I say flatly and walk out onto the stage as Caesar had just finished introducing me. I put on my best, crowd winning smile and wave to the people, shaking Caesar's hand when I reach him. 

I walk with a hardened mask back down the hallways, leading back to the cell. I never felt more dirty than I had in that interview. And after, when Snow stopped me, I felt like I was drowning in filth.

"Wonderful performance. It is only a shame the rebels will not be as appreciative of it, might even consider it traitorous." He pats me on the shoulder. "Well done my boy." I wince away from his hand, his words his entire being. Roses and blood, his distinguished scent. I gladly went with the Peacekeepers when they yanked me away from the president, smiling proudly at me.

A deep shiver runs through my core at the memory. When I get back to the cells, I keep my head down as I'm walked to mine. 

"Oh goody, his highness is back. How was your trip, Peeta?" Johanna's voice was layered with sarcasm and poison, especially at my name. I don't answer and she huffs annoyed.

They throw me in and I fall facing the Avox girl that has fresh blood on her. The Peacekeepers leave silently. She leans against the cell for support and her eyes watch me in silence. Her eyes as I look back, shifting into a sitting position are full of fear, pain, and words unspoken. I move closer to her and my movement causes her to shrink away so I stop.

"Hello." I murmur in a gentle voice. Her wide green eyes set in her swollen bloody face, are trained on me, watching to see what I would do. "I'm Peeta." I know she obviously knows me, but I've never gotten to talk to her before like this, had myself introduced properly. I also knew, we both did, that she couldn't talk, but I asked my question anyway because I believe it important. "What's your name?" She looks at me like I was crazy. Johanna hearing, voices I'm a crazy idiot, but i ignore her and hold out my hand near the dividing bars between the girl and myself. "You can spell it out in my palm." And I give an example, slowly spelling "Peeta" with my finger so she could see. She doesn't move to do the same after I finished, just stares at my palm. Maybe, I thought, she can't spell... I'm about to give up when her hand timidly reaches toward mine and begins writing unseen letters. L-A-V-I-N-I-A. 

"Lavinia?" I say allowed and she nods. I smile at her softly. "That's a pretty name." Her finger begins to move again in my palm. W-H-Y, I-S, T-H-I-S, H-A-P-P-E-N-I-N-G. I look up to her and frown slightly. "I don't know why it's happening to you Lavinia." I didn't. There couldn't possibly be anything she or Darius knows, and if they do, they can't speak it, the Capitol is to thank for that so it backfired on them self. W-I-L-L, I-T, S-T-O-P. "I hope so. People are hard at work now trying to free the districts. Just hold on, this will all stop soon." P-R-O-M-I-S-E. I look into her eyes, a little spark of hope has been lit in her questioning eyes amongst the pain and fear. "Yes, I promise." Her tiny lips curve up into a small smile that falters after a grimace in pain. She writes T-H-A-N-K, Y-O-U. In my hand before the lights to the area shut off and we're all in the dark. I feel her hand leave mine and shuffling that stops suddenly. Behind me Annie whimpers, not liking the dark, and I crawl over near her and hold out my hand. "I'm here, Annie." It's a moment later before I feel her hand in mine. I settle by the bars and not in the least bit tired, stare off into the darkness, picturing Katniss, healthy, smiling, with a soft glow around her, before my eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days pass. My eyes open to the sound of my cell door’s hinges squeaking. I don’t remember falling asleep, I’m not even sure I did. Looking off to my left as the Peacekeepers move into the cell for me, I notice Lavinia is missing. I frown when I see Johanna gone too. The Peacekeepers hoist me up and march me out of the cell. We go to the same place as yesterday. Portia looks a little bit tired today, no make up has been used to conceal it. I do however think I see a bit of purple and blue that did not belong on Portia’s tan skin and makeup that had been applied, but looked like it’d rubbed off.

“Portia, have the hit you?” I ask the chance I get to, when she leans near me to inspect some make up she just applied. She freezes, hesitates only a moment before she pull back and nods once.

“I think that will do it.” She looks to the Peacekeepers and nod to them. “You can take him now.” She gives me a kiss on the cheek before they take me.

I’m take to a lone room and sat in a chair in front of a camera, Caesar is there also beside me. The room is filled with only Peacekeepers, two camera men, and President Snow. As the cameramen are finishing setting up, Snow comes up to speak with me, only loud enough I can hear.

“Your performance last time was quite a good one, but this one needs to be the best you have ever done, because if you do not convince a cease fire out of the rebels, your little lover and all her little friends in District Thirteen will be no more. Understood?”

I didn’t, really. I thought District Thirteen was already destroyed, but then I find myself suddenly hearing Katniss’ voice telling me District Thirteen still existed, the Capitol had been lying to us, and I guess she was right. I nod to the president and say nothing else, saving it all for the cameras.

Caesar begins speaking to me and we have a few empty exchanges before Caesar asks me about rumors that Katniss is taping propos for the districts. I knew nothing of this of course, but if she was, good for her. 

I give no emotion than causality. “They’re using her, obviously,” I say. “To whip up the rebels. I doubt she even really knows what’s going on in the war. What’s at stake.”

“Is there anything you’d like to tell her?” asks Caesar. Oh, about a million things Caesar, but where would I start? I wanted to say.

“There is,” I say. I look directly into the camera now, pretending I’m looking directly in Katniss’ eyes and hope she can see all the things I truly wish to say in mine. “Don’t be a fool, Katniss. Think for yourself. They’ve turned you into a weapon that could be instrumental in the destruction of humanity. If you’ve got any real influence, use it to put the brakes on this thing. Use it to stop the war before it’s too late. Ask yourself, do you really trust the people you’re working with? Do you really know what’s going on? And if you don’t… find out.” I see the red light on the camera go off and try to relax in my seat, but I only find myself worrying more.

The president comes back up, “Good work, Mr. Mellark.” Snow looks away from me to the Peacekeepers who’ve flanked me the moment the camera stopped recording. “Take him back,” he says simply. I’m grabbed out of my seat and taken back to my cell.

Before I’m thrown in, the Peacekeepers who’ve held themselves back till now, decide to have the fun they’ve been so deprived of. I’m hit just about everywhere but my face. I feel myself being lifted off the ground, then something hard connects with my stomach. I’m in a coughing fit when they throw me in, trying to get back the breath I’ve lost. I fall to the floor still coughing. My mouth fills with an irony liquid and I spit it before I can choke on it, looking at the floor I see the blood spatter onto it. My ears are ringing. I turn over holding my stomach, and see the Peacekeepers leaving, laughing. The constant pain in my stomach is too much. I let my head rest back on the floor as darkness claims me. 

When I wake up, I wake up to screaming. Johanna is in the cell beside me either asleep or passed out. The way she looked though, it would probably be better if she were dead. Annie is with her knees to her chest in a corner, rocking, holding her ears tightly. I sit up or try to anyway, but stop when my stomach, my whole body protests in agony. I couldn’t move. The screams continue from somewhere off to my side. It must be Lavinia, I think frowning as I stare up at the ceiling, only she could make those screams. I force myself up when a scream is suddenly cut short and look past Johanna and see Lavinia go limp. A minute later, Lavinia is being dragged out of the cell by her red hair, her body beaten and bloody, being pulled along the floor leaving a crimson trail behind her, out the double doors.

“No!” I yell when I realize what’s happened. She was only fifteen… That wasn’t what I’d meant when I told her it’d be over soon, when I promised her it’d be better soon… Tears spring to my eyes, and for the first time since being brought here, I cry. I let my strong facade break, and crumble around me.

“Shut up, just shut up already!” Johanna moans. I hadn’t realized I was still crying. The Peacekeepers return and laugh when they see my cheeks wet with tears. I bury my face in my arms, against my knees. I didn’t care, I had good reasons to cry. I look up when I hear a clank in front of me followed by others. Before me I see a tray of a piece of molding bread and cheese, a small glass of water on the side. Our first “meal” since being here. I didn’t care, no matter how much good food I got when I was living in the Victor’s Village or when I was in the Games, I still can eat what I used to. Hard, molding bread. Johanna doesn’t seem to mind the meal either and Annie doesn’t even go near her tray. Enobaria after a while goes to hers and Darius, I’m not even sure he got any. It isn’t long later though that the lights shut off. I set down the nearly empty cup of water and lay down, my tears dried on my face. This crying, this pain, taking its toll. My eyes close and I fall asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

I’m being shaken awake and before anything can be processed in my mind I’m being led down hallways into the same room I’d had my last interview in. Snow is there, his eyes are a light with a burning anger and he seems to have lost weight. The Peacekeepers stay behind the camera worked by one man and Portia descends on me to make me look presentable quickly. She herself doesn’t look well. THe only ones I could think are, is the Peacekeeper and camera man. After she’s finished they take her out. I sit in the same chair and as the cameraman counts down from five, Snow, glaring down on me says in calm poison, “Convince them.” He steps in front of the camera.

A light turns red. The screen beside the camera shows Snow.

“Citizens of Panem, thank you for joining us tonight.” Convince them? How, if they haven’t stopped already? I start to tap my foot as neves I’ve never had before grow. Katniss’ life was on the line here. I begin to break out in a sweat and anger rises inside of me. Snow must know it won't work and that either way he's going to win. Snow has now handed it over to me and I speak in a frustrated manner.

"Citizens of Panem, please heed my warning and bring about a cease fire. Nothing good can come out of this if it continued. In various districts there has been damage that can not be mended, and it needs to stop!" The door flies open, but my eyes have focused on the screen, on Katniss.

"Sir, we've-"

"I know, now get it back!"

The man leaves. The cameraman touches his ear and when hs hand moves away, there's a blue light. Then he's pointing at me and I know we're back, but now I'm distracted by this change of events. I try to move on with my attempt to convince the rebels when a clip of Finnick talking about Rue replaces me on the screen. Now it's back to me.

“Please, this all must stop!” I plead. I”m cut off once more for ten seconds in which Snow tells me I have one last chance. I don’t even get much of one before the broadcast is back to the rebels and the Capitol seal is up accompanied by a flat audio tone. Snow goes into a rage, shouting at the cameraman at the tech man when he appears in the door again then his deadly eyes focus on me before he turns around.

“Clearly the rebels are now attempting to disrupt the broadcast they find incriminating, but both truth and justice will reign. The full broadcast will resume when security has been reinstated. Peeta,” Snow turns to me. “Given tonight’s demonstration, do you have any parting words for Miss Katniss Everdeen?”

I try to bring back a calm, collected demeanor, but I can’t. “Katniss… how do you think this will end? What will be left? No one is safe. Not in the districts. And you… in Thirteen…” My eyes flash to Snow as his threat echoes in my head and I inhale sharply, as if fighting for air like I’d been kneed again. “Dead by morning!”

“End it!” Snow orders. I try to continue to speak, the rebels still are trying to have control of the broadcast, but its all only in three second intervals. I’m about to scream Katniss’ name when the Peacekeepers surge forward, knocking the cameraman into the camera, knocking that over in the process. I stand from the chair and duck out of the way as a few punches are thrown, but one Peacekeeper lands a blow right into my stomach causing me to double over as the other is bringing his fist up. My cry of pain is weak and short. I’m on the ground, clutching my stomach, my lip hurting as well, when from the corner of my eye I see a boot sailing toward my face, then nothing.


	6. Chapter 6

Two days. The Peacekeepers do whatever they want with me for two days. By the third I can’t move, I don’t want to. I don’t want to speak either. I’ve stayed by Annie’s cell each time I’m thrown back in, with my hand outstretched to her if she needed to hold it, but otherwise I was dead to the world. They’ve killed Darius, and I half expect to be next. They’re through with me, I failed, I even helped the rebels. Helped Katniss. Each waking moment its Katniss and the expectation of death.

On the third day, I’m not led to a room parallel to the cells as before, instead, I'm led to the room at the end of the hall no ones been in yet. Its a big room, a light only on a single chair in the middle, one you might see in at a dentists. I don’t fight back, what was the point even if I could? I’m strapped down into the chair easily and the Peacekeepers leave. I sigh and close my eyes. I hope they took heed my warning, hope she’s safe. I’m sure of it, otherwise there would be no need for any of this right? The door opens again and I look over and find I’m watching a Capitol doctor rolling a tray full of syringes toward me.

“Peeta Mellark. I never expected to see you in person.” His voice was raspy and cold. He stopped at my side and picked up a pair of gloves off the tray, slipping them on his long fingers. Now he was closer to the light and I could see his aging features clearer. Tattoos gotten long ago, now scar his face, sending chills down my spine. His smile is none of comfort as he picks up a syringe. He points it up into the air away from us both, and a clear liquid shoots from it when he presses it.

“Are you familiar with tracker jacker venom?” I nod, of course I was. I was stung in my first Games. “Then this shouldn’t come as a shock to you.” I felt a pinch as he stuck the needle into my arm without warning. I winced and closed my eyes. The moment the venom was injected into my veins, I felt the burn. My body tensed and arched, I clenched my teeth to keep from crying out. Footsteps then another pinch into the other arm and more venom flooded into my veins. I pulled against the restraints and screamed. If this was how they were going to kill me, I wish it was already over. I try to break free of my restraints, wanting to get at my arms and stop the burning, the paralyzing pain that was now spreading through my body. 

Minutes go by, it felt like hours really until the venom settled and it was only a dull ache now. I opened my eyes, I couldn’t move otherwise. The doctor was still there, watching me and when he sees my eyes have opened he smiles. His features have begun to contort and what I had thought was scary before, was even scarier now. His eyes were growing larger as they stared his voice was distant. 

“Now that you’ve opened your eyes, lets watch the film shall we?” Film? He leaves my view and is replaced by strange creatures, flying or crawling over the room. They looked like something from a nightmare. The wall facing me suddenly lights up and I see a girl running. I know her, I think. She climbs a tree and there I stand with a group underneath it. My group looks like they’re trying to attack her. 

“Why are we doing that?” I find myself asking. The people on the screen begin contorting. The girl in the tree grows fangs and shifts into a dog like creature as she climbs. What is she going after. She’s normal again as she pulls a knife out and begins cutting a branch. There’s a nest on the branch that turns into a snaking slithering around the nest and constricting it. Colors of all sorts do to my vision as the snake and egg fall. The egg breaks releasing tracker jackers. The tracker jackers are after me. The girl, what has she done? “ Who is that?”

“Katniss Everdeen. She is your enemy, she wants you dead and here’s the proof.” Katniss Everdeen… The braid flowing down her back as she runs away from us, the ones who she dropped the lethal mutts on. Katniss… No. These are lies. Venomous lies.

“No!” I yell and the colors explode into tiny sprinkles raining down on the room. 

“Yes, Katniss Everdeen is a mutt, a murderer.” The doctor insists. The video switches to District Twelve. Fire bombs are raining down on it and the camera has specifically zoomed in on the square, the bakery. “She is the reason you family is dead.” I can just see in the bakery, enough to know it isn’t empty, just before a bomb hits it and the building explodes, sending debris flying. 

“No!” I yell again. It wasn’t to deny the accusation about Katniss this time, but to deny what has just been show before my eyes. Tears spring to my eyes, blurring everything, making everything seem underwater. More than one flame has filled the room and I start struggling against my restraints again, trying to run from the fire, screaming into heated air. 

“Katniss Everdeen is a mutt, a murderer.” I hear the doctor say before a sharp prick in my neck and a liquid injected inside, making my vision go black.

I wake up with my head pounding and my body feeling like its floating in the sea.

“She’s a mutt, a murderer.” I hear myself mutter.

“Peeta?” I slowly turn my head in the voice’s direction and see Johanna. “Peeta, who? You keep saying it, who?”

I furrow my brow, looking toward the ceiling now. “Katniss Everdeen.” Saying this seemed wrong. I can’t remember much, just the doctors words, the images that were on the screen, my family being blown up.

“No Peeta. I don’t know what they’ve said or done, but its a lie.” I focus on the girl with the braid in my head. I squeeze my eyes shut picturing her grey eyes.

“I know.” I whisper and fall back asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

When I wake back up, I’m in the chair again.

“Earlier wasn’t as successful as we’d hope, but two more sessions and I think he’ll be finished.” The doctor’s voice drifts to me from off to my right.

“Good. If I am correct, we should be expecting the rebels to attempt to rescue these traitors and we will most graciously give them what they want.” Snow.

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, get back to work please.” A door closes and I hear the doctor's footsteps come closer. I stare at the light. He injects the venom first into my right, then my left and like earlier I scream from the pain. Different clips from earlier, same words. Almost believed. Darkness.

Back in my cell when I wake up, I turn over and curl into a ball, rocking from side to side. Johanna’s voice barely reaches me. I try to hold onto the truth. Katniss Everdeen is my ally. My friend. The one I love. I fall asleep once more.

Nothing seems right anymore. These people who surround me are with her, they can’t be trusted. Anyone associated with the mutt, the murderer can not be trusted. Voices are echoing all around me, screaming at me. I clutch my ears and rock back and forth.

“Go away! Go! You’ll bring her here!” The voices were calling for the mutt. I didn’t want to die. Footsteps near me and my vision suddenly is black, my voice fading. “Don’t let her kill me!” Then I become dead to the world once more.

Everything has changed. My room is no longer made of steel bars, my room even has a bed. There’s beeping and sounds of dripping, this all coming from machines surrounding me. Doctors are there too, poking and prodding to check me out. 

“I don’t believe we should bring in Katniss yet.” My head snaps up and I look for the one who spoke her name. Katniss? The mutt is here? Has she claimed more victims, brought me here to finish off what she started? No, I won’t let her kill again. I must stop her. The doctors are talking, but I can’t focus on them. Lights shine in my eyes, but I can only see her. Then she’s there, in the flesh. Without though, I hop off the bed and sweep aside the doctors. She begins to run to me. My hands lift in the air, outstretched toward her. I keep walking, determination in my eyes and when we meet, her arms move to go around me, but I stop her. I close my hands around her neck tightly and watch as she struggles for air, her face slowly turning purple. I tighten my grip, ignoring the clawing at my hands, and she is forced to her knees. The mutt’s struggles are growing weaker and I smile, the thought of her threat being gone is a relief. Then it all goes black, my last image is of her terrified gray eyes reflecting someone I don’t even recognize, a monster...


End file.
